HST-1510 History of African Americans to 1877

Credits 3
This course surveys African-American history from the beginnings of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in the colonial era through the end of Reconstruction in 1877. The course examines the social, political, cultural, military, economic, and scientific triumphs and tribulations that African-Americans experienced throughout their early history in the land that has become the United States. Particular emphasis is placed on describing and analyzing black Americans’ resistance to inequality, their development of institutions, the expansion of slavery, and the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Course Outcomes

Discuss the ways in which enslaved Africans melded their cultural traditions with those of other inhabitants of America to develop uniquely African-American communities and cultures.
Discuss the causes for and impacts of the expansion of slavery in America and efforts to counteract the expansion of slavery.
Describe African Americans’ efforts to gain and make the most out of their freedom.
Analyze primary sources in their historical context.
Identify basic historical arguments in secondary sources.
Construct justifiable historical arguments based on evidence from primary and secondary sources.